University of Iowa SJMC Professional Advisory Board member, Professor emeritus and former Director of the University of Tennessee’s School of Journalism and Electronic Media (2006-2016) Peter Gross published a new book, “The Cultural Core of Media Systems.” It was released in English and Romanian. Gross has a UI Doctor of Philosophy in Mass Communication.

“The Cultural Core of Media Systems” offers an alternative perspective to the reigning socio-political and economic approaches to evaluating media systems and why and how they function. Gross outlines a cultural model, the "kaleidoscopic cultural prism," for assessing the nature and functioning of these systems. Romania was the country selected to test the model.  

The Eastern European country was selected because the awareness of inherent negatives in the cultural bricolage accumulated over centuries. Throughout the centuries, Romanians have lived under physical, administrative, and ideological dominance of various empires and new generations are increasingly aware of the inherent negatives.

“I hope my work will serve as a starting point for solidifying culture's central role in analyzing the character of mass media systems and why they function as they do in each society. The prism I offer is a work in progress,” Gross said. “My expectations are that colleagues across the world will test it in their own countries, outline their own prisms and, thus, allow for a more complete and nuanced assessment of media systems. And also set the stage for comparing media systems from a cultural perspective.”

“The Cultural Core of Media Systems” is available for purchase now.